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Do you use the word "school" with your kids?

I mean when it's time to sit down and study, do you say it's "time for school?" I'm sorry if that's a dumb question! I'm just trying to slowly prepare my daughter for more directed learning and I feel awkward using the word school, when what we're doing is decidedly not school. I'm setting up a little classroom -- there's another one, there's no class, so it's a whatroom?? -- for her with a table and chair that will be used specifically for "school" type work and I don't know how to explain it to her without using words that don't feel like they fit!

I try to not use those words but we unschool & most everything we do looks nothing like school. We remodeled our dinning room into a computer/learning center but we call it the office. When I want to do something or share something educational with them I usually just say "Hay come check this out guys!" It works because they know I find some pretty cool stuff to show them.

we do use the S word but I don't like to I feel like that more describes sitting in a stuffy room all day with a load of other kids than it describes what we do. We call where our stuff is the classroom but really it is just the back half of our livingroom. We do most of her work in the livingroom but she does have a table she uses sometimes too.

I agree - because that's sure what school meant when I was growing up. I also feel like it's the name of a broken system, and I don't want to name our efforts after a broken system. Bad juju. ;-)

For now, I think I'm just going to avoid naming it at all and stick with drawing her to activities. "Come sit at your table and we'll play with your marbles!" There. Now it's math time. Maybe the language will evolve naturally.

Quoting twyliatepeka:

we do use the S word but I don't like to I feel like that more describes sitting in a stuffy room all day with a load of other kids than it describes what we do.

I personally think its important to use school.. One reason is because it is school.. It's the way we tech and it doesn't have to have the connotation of sitting in a building like robots. That is a world connotation but it doesn't have to be yours.. Dispelling that notion would be a great lesson for a child.

Yep, DD is nearly 4 and she is so excited for it. We have a school room that is closed off when not in use so they cant just wander in makes it more exciting plus it is time with mommy with out baby brother and she loves that Dh even noticed our our relationship mine and dds has gotten better she prefers me now

I use the term school. We have a "school nook" that my Little Guy likes to call the learning nook. For awhile he would also ask, "Is it time for learning?" or "Is it time for me to get smart?" lol. So for him I didn't use the word school for awhile, but since my oldest calls it school, he started calling it school so "learning time" and "smart time" has slowly dwindled away lol

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